Evergreen Park Woman Accused of Hiding Terrorist Past

Federal agents arrested a woman at her Evergreen Park home early Tuesday morning on allegations that she hid her terrorist background when obtaining U.S. citizenship, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade announced.

Rasmieh Yousef Odeh, 66, a naturalized citizen, was charged with immigration fraud after the unsealing of a federal indictment in Detroit. The indictment charges that Odeh unlawfully procured U.S. citizen by lying about her background as a convicted terrorist.

The indictment alleges that Odeh was convicted by an Israeli military court for her role in the 1969 bombings of a supermarket and the British Consulate in Jerusalem.

U.S. attorneys say that Odeh carried out the acts on behalf of the terrorist organization, the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine or PFLP.

Odeh and others were said to have placed multiple bombs in a supermarket and at the British Consulate. One of the bombs at the supermarket detonated killing two people and injuring others, the indictment said.

The second bomb damaged the Consulate building.

She was convicted in an Israeli military court and sentenced to life imprisonment. Odeh was released ten years later as part of a prisoner exchange and returned to the West Bank. She came to the United States in 1995 and became a U.S. citizen in 2004, federal authorities said.

The indictment alleges that Odeh omitted her arrest, conviction and imprisonment on her immigration application when applying for U.S. citizenship.

If convicted of the charge, Odeh could be stripped of her U.S. citizenship and faces a 10-year prison term for immigration fraud.